{"id":424098,"date":"2025-04-11T12:06:51","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T10:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/04\/11\/la-diplomazia-commerciale-di-von-der-leyen-si-fa-globale-ora-tocca-a-canada-emirati-arabi-uniti-e-nuova-zelanda\/"},"modified":"2025-04-11T14:30:35","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T12:30:35","slug":"von-der-leyens-trade-diplomacy-goes-global-now-its-canada-uae-and-new-zealands-turn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/04\/11\/von-der-leyens-trade-diplomacy-goes-global-now-its-canada-uae-and-new-zealands-turn\/","title":{"rendered":"Von der Leyen’s trade diplomacy goes global: now it’s Canada, UAE and New Zealand’s turn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – The second Trump term\u00a0is forcing the EU to look around and seek new global trading partners<\/strong>. After opening the door to China, India, Mexico, and Mercosur countries, Brussels is now turning to Canada, the United Arab Emirates, and New Zealand<\/strong> to try to save the international economic architecture, which the decisions of the New York\u00a0tycoon<\/i> have shaken.<\/p>\n

The White House’s temporary suspension of tariffs<\/strong> (reciprocated with a parallel pause in the EU\u00a0countermeasures) was\u00a0a shot in the arm\u00a0for the Old Continent. Still, no one on this side of the Atlantic is under any illusions that the future of global trade is rosy, certainly not Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong>, who yesterday (April 10) got\u00a0on the phone to hear from several world leaders and deepen — or begin to weave — economic ties.<\/p>\n

The head of the EU executive had an important call with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan<\/strong>, the president of the United Arab Emirates<\/strong>, one of the most important economic and strategic players in the Persian Gulf<\/strong> and the Middle East<\/strong> in general. Brussels and Abu Dhabi will begin talks to enter into a free trade agreement<\/strong> (FTA)\u00a0that, a Commission statement says, will “strengthen EU-UAE bilateral relations and contribute to the prosperity of the entire region<\/strong>” in the Middle East and may “serve as a catalyst for strengthening ties between the EU and the Gulf Cooperation Council<\/strong>” (GCC).<\/p>\n

“Open trade and mutual benefits<\/strong>” are the goal, contrasting\u00a0the closures and mutual damage resulting from US tariffs. The following negotiation steps “will focus on liberalizing trade in goods, services, and investment <\/strong>while deepening cooperation in strategic sectors such as renewable energy, green hydrogen, and essential raw materials<\/strong>,” according to the statement<\/p>\n

<\/a>
United Arab Emirates president Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (photo: Alexey Nikolskiy via Imagoeconomica)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another phone call was with Mark Carney<\/strong>, the new Canadian prime minister who succeeded Justin Trudeau<\/strong> last month. The readout of the conversation released by the commission describes Ottawa as a “trusted partner and ally<\/strong>,” reiterating the importance of bilateral cooperation not only in the economic sphere but also in security and defense matters.<\/p>\n

Regarding the first aspect, von der Leyen claimed the “success” of CETA<\/strong>, the free trade agreement between Canada and the 27 member states\u00a0signed in 2016 and provisionally applied since the following year for most of its provisions, although not yet formally in force, which proves “the EU’s strong commitment to open and predictable trade<\/strong>.” Brussels\u00a0intends to “work closely with Canada on the global trading system reform<\/strong>, including through enhanced cooperation” with member countries of the\u00a0Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (CPTPP)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

On the strategic front, the president particularly emphasized the “strong joint support for Ukraine,” <\/strong>including within the coalition of the willing <\/strong>— seeking to act under Franco-British leadership — when Washington appears on the verge of abandoning Kyiv to reach a separate agreement with Moscow.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Three’s a charm:\u00a0von der Leyen called\u00a0New Zealand’s premier, Christopher Luxon<\/strong>. In May, it will be the\u00a0first anniversary of the FTA between Brussels and Wellington, <\/strong>and the Commission president\u00a0said she was “eager to deepen ties<\/strong>” with the country, which is also part of the CPTPP along with Canada. Von der Leyen also thanked\u00a0Luxon for New Zealand’s “continued support” for Ukraine<\/strong>, again as part of the coalition of the willing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Donald Trump’s US becomes increasingly unpredictable and unreliable, Brussels attempts to forge new friendships around the world (and to reinforce existing ones)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":414156,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25705],"tags":[25747,25928,30994,30995,30242,30996,30997,26864],"class_list":["post-424098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-ceta-en","tag-christopher-luxon-en","tag-cptpp-en","tag-customs-duties-en","tag-mark-carney-en","tag-mohammed-bin-zayed-al-nahyan-en","tag-accordi-commerciali-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424098"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":424122,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424098\/revisions\/424122"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}